Keep Me Safe Ch. 04

Hi everyone, sorry it's been so long but I've got myself a new editor! I would like to give her special thanks for the support she has given me. Enjoy.

~#~

Miles awoke on Ryan's bed to find him gone from the room. It was late afternoon and Miles couldn't remember much about that morning after seeing his would-be rapist Dave in the canteen and feeling the instinct to run. Miles also vaguely remembered hearing the words I love you from Ryan but he couldn't be sure.

A loud knock on the door pulled Miles from his thoughts. Miles grabbed his keys from his desk and went to unlock the door. As the key turned in the latch, the door flung open, knocking him over and leaving him dazed on the floor.

"Hello, boy," was the last thing he heard before a blow to the head knocked Miles into darkness.

~#~

Ryan sat in his car parked at the college as he thought about Miles. Ryan was determined to protect Miles and to show that he loved him. It had taken all his strength of will not to hunt down that psycho rapist Dave once Miles was asleep, but Ryan was afraid that if he got himself into trouble for exacting revenge, he could lose Miles.

Ryan had told Chris and Amy to keep an eye out for 'Date Rape' Dave and then called to inform the police of the indecent. Ryan was hoping that his brief statement over the phone would be enough to find him again and he was sure the college would help out by providing the CCTV footage of the canteen. Protecting Miles, however, was the easy part, even though the boy was a magnet for trouble. The hard part for Ryan would be showing his boy that he loved him. Romance wasn't something Ryan was used to doing.

His first thought was to take Miles on a date but considering what happened on Miles's last date, Ryan wanted nothing that would further upset his lover. In the end, Ryan chose a special arrangement of flowers . A white rose and a red rose, bound together by a purple ribbon with a card saying 'I Love You, Miles' on it.

Ryan sat in his car for nearly an hour trying to work up the courage to go back to their room but again, he was afraid Miles would push him away. The many different ways Miles could reject him ran through his mind on an endless loop. So deep inside his head was he, a sudden tapping on the passenger side window made Ryan jump out of his skin.

"You okay, mate?" a guy asked as he looked into Ryan's. Shaking himself from his introspection, Ryan got out, carefully picking up the two entwined flowers.

"Yeah thanks. Just got a little lost in thought, I guess." As Ryan turned to face the kind stranger, a loud crack filled the air. Alarmed, he looked at his new friend, reading on his face the same worry Ryan felt unfurl in his gut. Seconds later, another crack sounded and as one, they both ran toward the noise as he dialled the emergency services. As they rounded the corner, pushing through the main dormitory doors, a third crack sounded.

~#~

Chris was on his way to tell Miles and Ryan that the police had arrested Dave for Miles's attempted rape.

Apparently, the idiot had set up a web page titled 'I Nearly Fucked An Ice Prince'. That plus the tape from the canteen showing him gesturing to Miles and grabbing his crotch and they were pretty sure they had the right guy.

The web site was full of guys talking about how they had failed to screw a guy who was hard to bed and Dave had written that his Ice Prince had legged it half way through a film. When the officers came to him in the canteen, he tried to run, only to be tackled by a woman half his size.

Chris had argued with the police, pushing to keep Miles's name out of it so his friend would be spared the gruelling agony of testifying against his assailant, but in the end, the cops were adamant that without Mile's statement, they couldn't hold the guy on any charges. The footage from the canteen and the website, if it could be proven that Dave was behind it, were considered a crime only in conjunction with the attempted rape. On its own, the most they could charge him with was harassment, and then only if Miles wished to press charges. Apparently, the freedom of speech amendment allowed douchebags to say pretty much whatever filth they wanted.

As he turned into the hallway of Miles and Ryan's room, Chris was stunned to find a massive guy emerging from a doorway, carrying another person over his shoulder. Spying a flash of white hair hanging free from the limp form like a white silk curtain, Chris knew instantly it was Miles.

"Oi!" he shouted, getting the burly abductor's attention. As the man turned, Chris sprang into action, running full pelt at Miles's kidnapper. His heart was racing with terror but he couldn't have stopped even if he wanted to. Time seemed to slow as he ran and Chris was ten feet away when he saw the guy pull out a gun, aimed right at him. With a silent prayer in his mind, a booming crack filled the hallway, ringing in his ears and pain spiked through Chris's left shoulder. Weighing as much as he did and going as fast as he was, his momentum carried him forward and with a roar of pain and rage that rivalled the war cries of ancient barbarians, Chris slammed into Miles and his captor. As they went down in a tangle of bodies and a chorus of grunts, the gun went off again, the bullet disappearing into the heaping confusion. The trio hit the floor with a thud and seconds passed in silence before violence ensued.

Before he knew what was happening, Chris was flipped onto his back by the man he now recognised as Mike, Miles's father, and narrowly dodged a punch to the face. With a howl of rage, Mike's fist impacted with the cold concrete slab beneath and with a pop, it sounded like his hand was all but ruined.

Punches and fists were flying everywhere, some landing with a satisfying smack, others swishing wildly through thin air, as Chris and Mike fought viciously on the ground.

The hallway was deserted, there was no one around to help and the situation was turning bad for Chris as he lay on the cold floor trying to escape Mike's grip. Mike forced his knee into Chris's chest, forcing the air out of his lungs and with the bullet wound to his shoulder, he was rapidly losing his strength.

Chris saw a glint of metal just in time to dodge a knife slash to his neck and just barely grabbed Mike's arms before a second strike ended it. Both men struggled to control the blade, fighting against the other's strength, but the point of the knife was getting closer and closer to Chris's throat. Just as Chris felt the panic and despair of his inevitable death, the tip of the blade mere inches away, the echoing sound of a third gun shot deafened his ears and something hot and wet spattered across his face. Mike's grip on the blade suddenly went limp and his body slouched to the side, blood seeping out of the two holes in his head.

~#~

Searing agony brought Miles back to consciousness. His head hurt and his chest was on fire. Each breath brought blood into his mouth and his shirt was soaked in it. Apparently, he had been shot, a bullet piercing his chest, and now his lung was filling with blood, each breath becoming harder and shallower. Lying next to his head was a gun, the gun he had been shot with, he assumed.

Half dead and fading fast, Miles could see Chris and his father struggling, a knife working its way to Chris's throat. Frightened for the life of his dear friend, Miles used what little strength he had left, reached for the gun and aimed it at his father. His vision blurred as he pulled the trigger, the blast rang in his ears and the kickback of the gun knocked him down, the weapon skittering out of his hands. Relief coursing through his fading body, the last thing Miles saw before he closed his eyes was his father slumping to the ground.

~#~

The run from his car felt like hours to Ryan as he pushed his was through the doors to the main hallway and made his way to his room. "Oh my god... MILES!" Ryan screamed as he entered the hallway, the man he met outside following close behind. The boy he loved was lying on the ground in a pool of blood next to two other bodies.

In sheer terror, Ryan ran over to Miles's prone form as his companion checked the other two bodies. Kneeling beside Miles, he carefully lifted the pale boy's head and placing it gently in his lap. Miles's eyes gently fluttered open, the pupils dilated so much there was no colour left in his irises.

"Ry..."Miles managed to say as blood filled his mouth and his eyes closed one last time.

"Miles? Miles!"

When no reply came, Ryan gently shook his beloved's body trying to get a response, tears trickling down his cheeks. He tried to wipe them away only to leave smears of blood in their wake.

The man from the parking lot came and pulled a devastated Ryan away as paramedics rushed in and took over, speaking all kinds of medical jargon and prodding Miles in a cruel parody of physical intimacy. The medic checking for Miles's pulse gave his colleague a sombre look and together, they moved the young blond to a gurney and rushed him to their ambulance. For the fist time Ryan noticed Christ being carted off on another trolly and Mikes lifeless corpse.

Ryan was left on the floor in a blood covered mess with his two roses, both now a matching blood-red.

~#~

One year later

~#~

The early winter morning was cold and icy. Rows of head stones in the cemetery were covered in a fine white frost and Ryan sat in front of one particular marker. His heavy, black coat did little to shield against the chill of the morning and with cold fingers, Ryan placed a single flower on the ground, patchy grass receding from the dirt as the season claimed its toll. A stone angel knelt at the head of the grave, her hands open as if welcoming the one buried there.

The death had come as a shock to everyone and his mother had wept for weeks when it happened. Ryan just kept wishing he had one last chance to say the things he never said, do the things they never got the chance to do together. He had visited this grave every month since it happened but this one was the hardest.

Time passed as Ryan retreated into past memories, both good and bad, and the winter chill creeping up his extremities seemed to echo the loss in his heart.

"I thought I'd find you here," a soft voice said. A warm hand came to rest on Ryan's shoulder, gently squeezing it for comfort.

"Sorry. I just wanted to come here and say hello before tomorrow," Ryan said, warmed by the little gesture.

"It's a big day tomorrow, he should have been there," the person behind him said.

"Yeah, but I'm glad he didn't suffer much." Ryan sighed heavily and stood up. The hand on his shoulder slid into his and squeezed.

The sound of retreating footsteps on the frozen ground told Ryan he was alone again, that comforting presence walking away as he turned back to the grave to say his goodbyes. On second thoughts, he knelt down once more, retrieving the flower and placing it in the hands of the stone angel.

"I know I never said that I loved you often enough," Ryan whispered, as soft as a prayer on the wind, "but I do really mean it . I wish you could be here tomorrow but things just didn't work that way. I'll always love you no matter what happens. We'll always love you."

Ryan stood and brushed the frost and dirt off of his coat.

"Bye Dad. My fiancé's waiting for me," he said, a small smile gracing his face as he thought about Miles waiting for him by the car and their big day tomorrow.